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Are the in-room safes, really safe?


kms8066

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The safes in the rooms are safe and appropriate in the context. They will stop other guest you invite into the room from opening it as well as the cleaning staff. I have only been on two ships, but both had a style of safe which is fairly basic and good for cameras and such. I would not store $1 000 000 in one -- not that it would fit.

 

The safe is not that strong if somebody had time to go after it with tool. Also, the ship security will have the ability to open the box which is more a good thing than bad as people do from time to time forget the code. (Or more commonly think they set it to 6238 when they really punched in 6328.)

 

I feel safe using them and think they are the right size and function for basic consumer products and papers. If you travel with real high end jewelery, inquire if the ship has a safety deposit box to rent but then your stuff is outside your room. (If you never bothered to get an insurance certificate of value on your 'rocks', then its not high end or you are going lax on insurance and the in-room safe is all you deserve.)

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If you travel with real high end jewelery, inquire if the ship has a safety deposit box to rent but then your stuff is outside your room. (If you never bothered to get an insurance certificate of value on your 'rocks', then its not high end or you are going lax on insurance and the in-room safe is all you deserve.)

Better still leave the good stuff at home ;)

 

I buy good costume jewelery under $100. if it gets lost or stolen I am not going to cry.....well not too much... ;)

 

I know people who have taken family pieces & lost them :eek:

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The safes in the rooms are safe and appropriate in the context. They will stop other guest you invite into the room from opening it as well as the cleaning staff.

 

Also, the ship security will have the ability to open the box which is more a good thing than bad as people do from time to time forget the code. (Or more commonly think they set it to 6238 when they really punched in 6328.)

 

I was told that security can't open any safe. The only way is to drill out the hinges and destroy the safe . If this happens , the passenger is charged for a new safe.

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This is old and I know it... but I still remember it. We cruised 16 years ago where a family members' wallet was missing from the safe. We reported it to several people, including the Maitre'D. We were encouraged to have dinner while the cruise line investigated. After dinner (2 hours later) when we arrived back to our stateroom, there were many officers in uniform waiting for us (kinda creepy). They had my family member enter in the code to the safe... and volia(!)... the wallet was there. :rolleyes:

 

The wallet was not there before dinner - several family members throughly went through the safe on behalf of the family member.

 

But we do consider the safes "safe." We use them every time and have never had anything like that happen since.

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@ Kamloops. Incorrect. Security CAN open safes if, for example, a guest stupidly forgets their code number :o I believe the guest in question has to be present. The safes are perfectly adequate for day to day use but it really depends on what you are planning to keep in there and who else knows about it ;)

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I was told that security can't open any safe. The only way is to drill out the hinges and destroy the safe . If this happens , the passenger is charged for a new safe.

 

I watched security open mine when I some how got it stuck between open and closed! :D

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they can open the safes... I know that on our last cruise, my 10 yr old daughter put something in her safe and locked it with her sign & sale card, then she lost her card :eek: !! I don't remember how they "re-opened" the safe, but I can assure you that no drills or other tools were involved.

 

On that note....I have used them for cash, iPhones, jewelry and never have had an issue.

 

I think my daughter used it for her candy, and that was fine too :D

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Not that long ago, a member posted that they lost their ring because it slipped under the pad inside the safe. Happy ending... by posting here on CC, another member who was onboard for the following cruise was able to contact the next cabin occupant who got it back to its owner.

 

At the time, CC members were suggesting that it's best to place all items into plastic baggies prior to storing in the cabin safe. Smaller items are then contained and won't slip under the safe pad or get overlooked.

 

Since reading that post, I always first place items into a baggie before placing into the safe.

 

.

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We once had to have Security open a malfunctioning safe; they sent 2 security people and opened it in our presence. I have also heard, but luckily can't verify from personal experience, that Security will open the room safe to retrieve a passenger's passport if the passenger is left behind in a port. They will then turn the passport over to the port agent so that the passenger can get home or to the next port to meet the ship.

The idea of placing everying in a plastic bag before putting it in the safe is a very good one - our last safe was on a shelf too high to easily see into and had a raised lip in front so that you couldn't see flat items on the bottom.

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I was told that security can't open any safe. The only way is to drill out the hinges and destroy the safe . If this happens , the passenger is charged for a new safe.

 

Totally not true. I've had safes on three ships of different lines that were locked by whomever, and not opened at the start of the cruise. All it took was a call to the chief housekeeper to bring some sort of "key" and those safes were open without drilling or anything like that.

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they can open the safes... I know that on our last cruise, my 10 yr old daughter put something in her safe and locked it with her sign & sale card, then she lost her card :eek: !! I don't remember how they "re-opened" the safe, but I can assure you that no drills or other tools were involved.

 

On that note....I have used them for cash, iPhones, jewelry and never have had an issue.

 

I think my daughter used it for her candy, and that was fine too :D

 

Must...save....candy!

 

Love that!:D

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Not that long ago, a member posted that they lost their ring because it slipped under the pad inside the safe. Happy ending... by posting here on CC, another member who was onboard for the following cruise was able to contact the next cabin occupant who got it back to its owner.

 

At the time, CC members were suggesting that it's best to place all items into plastic baggies prior to storing in the cabin safe. Smaller items are then contained and won't slip under the safe pad or get overlooked.

 

Since reading that post, I always first place items into a baggie before placing into the safe.

 

.

 

Good advice! I bring an envelope - the inside of the safe is dark, and it's easy to see a while envelope where I put small things.

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I was told that security can't open any safe. The only way is to drill out the hinges and destroy the safe . If this happens , the passenger is charged for a new safe.

 

Couldn't possibly be true because they don't have time on turnaround day to replace a safe for the next occupants. And they're not going to put the next guest into a stateroom without a safe.

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My DH entered the code incorrectly several times and he was locked out. ( I believe that was to prevent someone from trying different codes to open your safe)

We had to call the desk and they sent two people, a Security Guard and someone from desk to open the safe. Funny, I was so happy they opened it without any problems, I don't remember if they used a key or code.:o

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I was told that security can't open any safe. The only way is to drill out the hinges and destroy the safe . If this happens , the passenger is charged for a new safe.

 

 

Security can open the safes.

On HAL ships, if a guest is late returning to the ship, security will look in cabin safe to see if there are passports. If the find them, they will hand them over to the Port Agent who will pass it along to the guest.

 

As an aside to this thread:

For the above reason (and any other situation which may arise while you are ashore), always bring the Port Agent's contact information with you when you leave the ship. On HAL ships, that info is at the top right side of the Port Information sheet which is distributed for every port.

 

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I was told that security can't open any safe. The only way is to drill out the hinges and destroy the safe . If this happens , the passenger is charged for a new safe.

 

We've had our safe opened by staff, I guess security, though I thought it was some kind of supervisor, when our code, that had worked previously, would not work. Actually, we've had it done more than once, so it must depend on the ship.

 

I have a feeling that this is quite a common problem with thousands of klutzy, forgetful people on board and electronics that may not always work right. I can't believe that there isn't a way to get into a safe without destroying it.

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We've had our safe opened by staff, I guess security, though I thought it was some kind of supervisor, when our code, that had worked previously, would not work. Actually, we've had it done more than once, so it must depend on the ship.

 

I have a feeling that this is quite a common problem with thousands of klutzy, forgetful people on board and electronics that may not always work right. I can't believe that there isn't a way to get into a safe without destroying it.

 

Also, the locking mechanism is battery operated. Sometimes the battery goes dead and the safe will need to be opened and the battery replaced. This happened to us at a hotel a couple of years ago. Only took a few minutes for the two gentlemen who came to help.

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Having worked as a hotel GM, there is definately a way to open safes with an electronic code lock. For security's sake only 2 people at our hotel were authorized to have the override codes that would open them, so not just anyone should be able to open the safe.

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